Mount Mulligan is a former mining town and now a rural

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality is a geographic subdivis ...

in the

Shire of Mareeba The Shire of Mareeba is a local government area at the base of Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland, inland from Cairns. The shire, administered from the town of Mareeba, covered an area of , and existed as a local government entity f ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, Australia. In the Mount Mulligan had a population of 4 people. It is the site of the Mount Mulligan mine disaster, Queensland's worst mining disaster.

Geography

Although still officially gazetted, Mount Mulligan is now a

ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * ''Ghost Town'' (1956 film), an American Western film by All ...

, with a single cemetery, a single occupied residence, a single chimney stack, and the overgrown remains of the once busy mining operations and electricity generator. Nearby towns are Julatten, Dimbulah, Mount Carbine and Mount Molloy.

History

The conglomerate and sandstone mountain range is known to local Djungan people as

Ngarrabullgan Ngarrabullgan (also ''Njrrabulgan'', ''Nurrabullgan'', ''Ngarrabullgin'', or ''Nguddaboolgan''), officially named Mount Mulligan by the State, is a large tabletop mountain (18 km by 6.5 km) located 100 kilometres west of Cairns i ...

. The Djungan people began living on the mountain about 40,000 years ago but ceased to camp on the range about 600 years ago. The range was named Mount Mulligan after prospector

James Venture Mulligan James Venture Mulligan (13 February 1837 – 24 August 1907) was an Ireland-born Australian prospector and explorer. Early life Mulligan was born in Drumgooland, County Down and emigrated to Australia at the age of 21 in 1860. He settled a ...

by his colleagues in their 1874 exploration expedition searching the Hodgkinson River for gold. The name Mount Mulligan was later given to the town that grew in the shadows of the range's escarpment. The town's coal was mined from shafts dug into a

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last ...

layer within the cliff face or escarpment of a large x free-standing conglomerate and sandstone massif (rising up to 400 metres above the township). It was a

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

mining town from 1910 until 19 September 1921 when an underground explosion killed 75 miners (all the miners in the town). The mine closed, but reopened in 1923 and continued in production until 1957 when a hydro-electric scheme eliminated the need for the coal. Mount Mulligan Post Office opened by July 1914 (a

receiving office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional s ...

had been open from 1907) and closed in 1959. A Mount Mulligan Rail Post Office was open between 1916 and 1920. The Chillagoe railway connected Mount Mulligan with Dimbulah. It opened on 7 April 1915 and was officially closed in January 1958. At the

2006 census 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

, Mount Mulligan and the surrounding area had a population of 55. In the the locality of Mount Mulligan had a population of 4 people.

Education

There are no schools in Mount Mulligan. The nearest primary and secondary school (P-10) school is Dimbulah State School in Dimbulah to the south, but it would be too distant from many parts of Mount Mulligan. There is no secondary school to Year 12 nearby.

Distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

and boarding school are options.

References

External links

{{authority control Shire of Mareeba Mining towns in Queensland Towns in Queensland Ghost towns in Queensland Geography of Far North Queensland Populated places established in 1910 1910 establishments in Australia Localities in Queensland

Geography

History

Education

See also

References

External links